Ricciardo on reasons for his tricky end of season

Daniel Ricciardo has put his late-season dip in performance down to all the confusion that was happening outside of the car.

Ricciardo's season started well. He won in China and Monaco and at one stage he was a real contender for the World Championship.

However, later on in the season, he was struck by misfortune and reliability issues. Add on top of that the fact that prospect of leaving the Red Bull family.

"I feel like even if I was to, say, trip and fall over on the way to the car and scratch all my arm, by the time I got in the car it would be blacked out in my head," he told ESPN.

"I guess what would have an effect, which you probably don't think at a time, is when you're away from the track and instead of getting eight hours sleep a night, you're getting six hours sleep because your brain is ticking, for sure this has some form of an accumulated effect.

"Again, I think I am stronger than that and when I get in the car I am sweet, I am switched on, but maybe it did take a little bit away from me without me knowing."

"For sure there were nights where I didn't sleep as I should have because I had a lot on my mind. Then that builds up and I was probably not as sharp as I once was."

Ricciardo was evidently left in a tricky place where things outside of the cockpit were impacting his driving.

The Aussie will hope that a break and joining a new team will mean that he returns focused and ready to get results.